The politicisation of evaluation: constructing and contesting EU policy performance

Although systematic policy evaluation has been conducted for decades and has been growing strongly within the European Union (EU) institutions and in the member states, it remains largely underexplored in political science literatures. Extant work in political science and public policy typically focuses on elements such as agenda setting, policy shaping, decision making, or implementation rather than evaluation. Although individual pieces of research on evaluation in the EU have started to emerge, most often regarding policy “effectiveness” (one criterion among many in evaluation), a more structured approach is currently missing. This special issue aims to address this gap in political science by focusing on four key focal points: evaluation institutions (including rules and cultures), evaluation actors and interests (including competencies, power, roles and tasks), evaluation design (including research methods and theories, and their impact on policy design and legislation), and finally, evaluation purpose and use (including the relationships between discourse and scientific evidence, political attitudes and strategic use). The special issue considers how each of these elements contributes to an evolving governance system in the EU, where evaluation is playing an increasingly important role in decision making

Vibronic mechanism of high-Tc superconductivity

The dispersion of the in-plane Cu-O bond-stretching LO phonon mode in the high-$T_{C}$ superconducting cuprates shows strong softening with doping near the zone boundary. We suggest that it can be described with a negative electronic dielectric function that results in overscreening of inter-site Coulomb interaction due to phonon-induced charge transfer and vibronic electron-phonon resonance. We propose that such a strong electron-phonon coupling of specific modes can form a basis for the phonon mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity. With the Eliashberg theory using the experimentally determined electron dispersion and dielectric function, we demonstrate the possibility of superconductivity with the order parameter of the $d_{k_{x}^{2}-k_{y}^{2}}$ symmetry and the transition temperature well in excess of 100K.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to Phys.Rev.

On a three-dimensional volume tracking model of droplet impact

A three-dimensional model has been developed, of droplet impact onto asymmetric surface geometries. The model is based on RIPPLE, and com-bines a xed-grid control volume discretization of the ow equations with a volume tracking algorithm to track the droplet free surface. Surface tension is modelled as a volume force acting on uid near the free surface. Contact angles are applied as a boundary condition at the contact line. The results of two scenarios are presented, of the oblique impact of a 2 mm water droplet at 1 m/s ontoa45 o incline, and of a similar impact of a droplet onto a sharp edge. Photographs are presented of such impacts, against which the numer-ical results are compared. The contact angle boundary condition is applied in one of two ways. For the impact onto an incline, the temporal variation of contact angles at the leading and trailing edges of the droplet was mea-sured from photographs. This data is applied as a boundary condition to the simulation, and an interpolation scheme proposed to evaluate contact angles between the leading and trailing edges. A simpler model is then proposed, for contact angle as a function of contact line velocity, and applied to both ge-ometries. The model requires values of only two contact angles, at a rapidly advancing and a rapidly receding contact line. Simulation results compare well with photographic data. 1 I

A new eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE)-like disease without tissue eosinophilia found in EoE Families

BACKGROUND Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a rapidly emerging, chronic inflammatory, genetically impacted disease of the esophagus, defined clinically by symptoms of esophageal dysfunction and, pathologically, by an eosinophil-predominant tissue infiltration. However, in four EoE-families, we have identified patients presenting with EoE-typical and corticosteroid-responsive symptoms, but without tissue eosinophilia. It was the aim of this study to clinically and immunologically characterize these patients with EoE-like disease. METHODS Five patients suffering from an EoE-like disease were evaluated with endoscopic, histologic, functional and quantitative immunohistologic examinations, and mRNA expression determination. RESULTS The frequency of first generation offspring of EoE-like disease patients affected by EoE or EoE-like disease was 40%. Immunofluorescence analysis confirmed an almost complete absence of eosinophils in the esophageal tissues of patients with EoE-like disease, but revealed a considerable T cell infiltration, comparable to EoE. In contrast to EoE, eotaxin-3 mRNA and protein were markedly reduced in EoE-like disease (P < 0.05). The mRNA expression levels of three selected EoE genes (eotaxin-3, MUC4 and CDH26) allowed to discriminate between EoE-like disease, EoE and normal epithelium. CONCLUSIONS Patients suffering from "EoE without eosinophilia" do not fulfill formally the diagnostic criteria for EoE. However, their clinical manifestation, immunohistology and gene-expression pattern, plus the fact that they bequeath EoE to their offspring, suggest a uniform underlying pathogenesis. Conventional EoE, with its prominent eosinophilia, therefore appears to be only one phenotype of a broader "inflammatory dysphagia syndrome" spectrum. In this light, the role of the eosinophils, the definition of EoE, and its diagnostic criteria must likely be reconsidered. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved